


And the world has somehow shifted

by EliottMoon



Series: The shenanigans of daddy Hades and his kids [2]
Category: Descendants (Disney Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Gen, Hades and Persephone love each other, Hades is a Good Parent, Hayley is Mal, Not Canon Compliant, Source books? What books?, United States of Auradon (Disney) Is Not Perfect, We ignore canon here
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-23
Updated: 2019-12-23
Packaged: 2021-02-26 01:34:54
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,423
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21925270
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EliottMoon/pseuds/EliottMoon
Summary: Not even Hades can stay away forever. He needs to surface from time to time. And meeting a person who still has residual magic...does things to him. Maleficent is a one off thing. Done and forgotten. But is she, really?It's time for Hades' world to irrevocably change. And such a change might be just what he needs.or How Hades managed to piss off a Fae Queen and his goddess...oh well.
Relationships: Hades/Maleficent (kinda), Hades/Persephone
Series: The shenanigans of daddy Hades and his kids [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1566802
Comments: 3
Kudos: 94





	And the world has somehow shifted

Hades has got to admit, he enjoys some alcohol from time to time. Of course, the best alcohol comes from Dionysus, doesn’t matter if it’s wine or other liquors he’s decided to try out. That’s definitely not something he can find on the Isle. But there is definitely alcohol to be found. And that’s really why he’s out. Almost a year in and the Isle is not any better off. Argument could be made that it’s getting worse. Definitely for those poor suckers who just kinda got thrown in for…listening to the villains. Oh well…

So Hades gets a few bottles of the alcohol that some minions make from half-rotten fruit that is coming from the “good guys” in Auradon. He drinks half a bottle right there. As a god, it takes more alcohol for him to feel tipsy or even drunk and he basically has to focus on making his body not ignore the alcohol. So he kind of feels the alcohol and it’s nice.

“Word is you are a god.” Hades turns to the person behind him, hefting his bag filled with the bottles. And standing there is Maleficent. She is dressed in a dramatic looking black and violet dress and her horns wrapped in leather. Well, leather seems to be popular on the Isle. Hades himself likes it. Better than a toga any day.

“Word is you’re Fae,” he responds. Her face twists for a moment.

“Queen. Fae queen.”

“I thought the Fae folk has no ruler,” Hades offers, waiting for the reaction.

“Sure, they do. They follow power,” Maleficent says, her eyes turning from brown-green colour to a glowing green. Hades looks at her and smirks. Maleficent, when unimpeded by the magical barrier, must radiate power. Not god-like levels, but more than typical mortal. As mortal as Fae can be. Even now, magical power clings to her.

“So I guess you are pretty powerful then,” he murmurs. He can just…smell the magic seeping from her. It’s…intoxicating. Nowhere near his beloved Persephone. But so much more than the people he’s met so far. And yeah, he has not met all of the big villains that possess magic, but the witches haven’t really made much of an impression on him. Hades breathes it in, feeling it coming in contact with his own. And if his magic is icy fire, Maleficent’s is hot like a forge.

“Oh…you would see all of my power if there wasn’t the barrier…” Maleficent whispers, her eyes sparkling.

“I can imagine,” Hades says, huskily. It feels almost overwhelming to actually feel magic that is not his own, it’s strange for his magic to be by itself, unaccompanied by his dear Persephone or at least Thanatos and Spot and the others. To suddenly feel such a strong magic… That’s more intoxicating than the alcohol he poured down his throat.

“I could have you for a visit at my castle,” Maleficent offers, acting nonchalant. Hades would laugh at the way she makes it sound as if it’s a huge gift for him. But there is magic in the air, literally and he wants more.

“I could go there,” he nods. He knows where it’s heading, and he is sure Maleficent knows too. He is only glad that Persephone is not Hera and they have had their arrangement for quite some time now. Him and Persephone are both quite sexual. After all, she is a symbol of Spring, of Life… What else is sexuality than life? And he…well, he does get bored when he’s alone. Of course, when his Persephone is with him, he needs no one else. Now, though?

Yes.

He leaves when they are done, his lust and magic sated for a while. And it feels good. Not good enough to stay and have breakfast together. If that would even happen with someone like Maleficent. And that’s that. Done and done. Left and forgotten.

***

It’s not.

“You! How dare you do this to me?!” Hades frowns, looking at the things he has purchased.

He’s in the mood for strawberries, but the closest he’s came to those are the apples he has gotten from the barges. He only had to strut to the barge and the people parted for him. Sometimes it’s nice to have a reputation. 

“You wanted those apples or something?” he asks. Not that he would give them to her. But he can always ask. When he looks at Maleficent, she looks furious. And pale. Paler than usually.

“No, you…!” she probably realises that calling him an idiot or something similar would not fly with a god. “How could you do this to me?!” she shrieks. All the minions milling around look at them. Hades rolls his eyes, grabs her and drags her away from the crowds.

“What’s got your horns in a twist?” he hisses. He doesn’t like people shrieking at him. He really doesn’t. Maleficent glares at him, her eyes glowing.

“What is going on is that I’m pregnant and it’s your fault!” she hisses back, furious. Honestly, Hades thinks that he sees smoke coming from the corners of her mouth. Then he realises what she’s just said, and he shakes his head quickly.

“That’s impossible,” he replies quickly. “Must be someone else’s.” Of course, it can’t be his. He doesn’t come up enough to know who Maleficent surrounds herself with, but it can’t be his. Fae surely cannot carry a child of a god. Otherwise Zeus would have a few Fae offspring himself. So, no, it can’t be his.

Maleficent rears back and looks at him with fury in her eyes.

“How dare you insinuate that I…”

“Look, I don’t give a damn about who you sleep with, but I am sure it can’t be mind. So, good luck. Have an apple on me.” He tosses her one of the apples and turns to leave.

“You will regret this!” Maleficent shrieks behind him. He waves his hand at her, ready to go back underground.

***

But that thing keeps niggling at Hades’ mind. He knows it’s foolish, mortal even. But the ever-present what if is still there. In the end he decides that the tunnels are secure enough for now that only Panic or Pain need to guard them, not both at once. And he sends them – in turns – to keep an eye on Maleficent. She is a few months along now and it’s sort of beginning to show. But she, according to Pain and Panic, has adopted his tendency to keep isolated. No one has seen Maleficent for weeks now and she is not taking pregnancy well. 

But Hades understands her reluctance to have the baby aborted here. There is no actual hospital on the Isle and the only people who could offer her the services are some cackling witches who could just as easily poison her with unknown herbs. And anyway, no one is even sure that abortions are possible. People can’t die. They suffer the consequences of whatever happened to them, but they can’t die. Hades can smell death on them. So maybe, if someone tried to abort the baby, the baby would be born…not exactly right. And even if he doubts villains can make good parents, they would probably consider their children an extension of themselves and wouldn’t want them…damaged.

“Watch her and report everything important…oh, report everything, I am not sure you could decide what’s important and what’s not. So, everything.” Pain and Panic nod quickly and toss a coin to see who is supposed to do what. Hades turns back to his bass. He hasn’t learned it perfectly yet.

He listens to the reports and keeps on thinking that it’s not his. Even then he – screw his weakness – sends some food for Pain or Panic to sneak in Maleficent’s…castle. He likes children, alright? Well, sort of. They are innocent and he likes that. Of course, he and Persephone decided not to have any because what life would the little one have if they saw both of their parents at once for only short intervals of time.

***

He starts to doubt himself when Maleficent…stays pregnant. At 11 months she’s overdue for birthing a human, but maybe Fae babies take longer to develop fully. Well, surely Maleficent is glad now that she has amassed so many henchmen and minions because she needs care. She even managed to rope one of the witches who how to heal and help with birth. The woman lives there now, checking on Maleficent and enduring her angry outbursts of “When will the spawn get out of me?!”. Hades sort of pities her. But he’s sure she’s getting something out of it.

Still…the length of the pregnancy is worrying. So is Maleficent’s blind insistence on the child being Hades’. She speaks about it even when she’s alone, Pain and Panic report to him. Why would she lie there? Unless, of course, she’s just delusional.

Either way, by the time month number 15 Hades starts really worrying. God-caused pregnancies often last around 14-15 months, but of course, without magic to support it, it can be longer. And it feels that he can no longer deny the fact that it’s very probably he’s the actual father. There are no other gods on the Isle. And probably no Fae willing to have sex with Maleficent…though, who knows.

He resolutely doesn’t care about the child – Maleficent can be its mother and raise it – until the faithful day the child is born. Eighteen months after Maleficent told him she’s pregnant. Pain rushes to the caves like he has hellhounds on his tail.

“It’s a…it’s…” he gasps. Hades sits up and looks at his minion. He knows Pain is supposed to keep watch over Maleficent now.

“Speak!”

“It’s a girl!” 

***

This time it’s Hades who sneaks up to Maleficent’s castle. He wants to see. He NEEDS to see. What if the child really is his? He waits a few days after the child is born. Panic reports that Maleficent recovers from childbirth quickly, already sweeping through the Isle to “remind them all who’s in charge”, to quote her. Well, he can let her think that.

“She named their child Mal,” Pain tells him.

“Mal?” Panic squirms under Hades’ gaze.

“Well, I heard her saying that she is named Maleficent after her…but needs to deserve the name before she gets it.” Hades scoffs. Disgusting.

“I suppose I should look at this so-called child of mine,” he murmurs. And that’s how he finds himself crouched low on Maleficent’s…balcony that night. He could make himself invisible, but that would just be a waste of his magic. If it came to it, he could actually make himself lost in shadows, which comes easy. Still, for now he can be inconspicuous on his own. Especially since he’s decided to leave his usual clothes behind and chose simple inconspicuous clothes and a knitted hat to cover his hair that would give him away in a second. Some dirt on his face helps conceal his features. Not that he’s afraid of Maleficent. But he doesn’t want anyone to know that he was anywhere near her castle.

He peers in through a hole in the dirty glass to see a busted crib with a few of the boards broken, filled with a few more-or less clean blankets. He doesn’t see into the crib, but the baby is not there anyway. She’s being nursed by someone. Of course, Maleficent wouldn’t deign to breastfeed her own daughter.

“When you are done, go to your room!” Maleficent barks. “Put her into her bed and let her, if she cries! She needs to be strong,” she continues before grabbing to the still nursing child, prompting it to start wailing. The wet nurse, surprisingly looking like quite a nice person, opens her mouth but then decides to stay quiet. “You’re a weakling now,” she sneers, almost angrily. Then her face turns a little more contemplating. “But you’ll grow up. And you have the blood of a dragon…and a god. You will be the perfect weapon for my revenge,” she continues almost gleefully. “Oh, you’ll be powerful. And mine.”

The fire wakes inside Hades, burning. A child. A weapon? How dares Maleficent… To his child. Because somehow Hades has already accepted this child as his own. But when he focuses, he can actually feel it. He can feel the aura of the babe. She is magic, she has god in her. And his own magic is straining towards her. He forces it down and waits.

“Ugh, take the dreadful creature. I can’t wait until she’s older. Then she can at least be useful,” she says, her face twisted as she thrusts the baby at the other woman. With that she sweeps out of the room and later even out of the castle. Hades feels himself bare his teeth, but turns back to the woman who went back to nursing…Mal. She looks around carefully before gently cooing over her and softly caressing her head. It takes some time before the ba-, Mal, finishes, the nurse props her up and burps her before putting her in the crib and covering her with a ratty blanket. Then she looks almost fearfully to the door Maleficent used and leaves, probably into a room Maleficent has her stay in.

Hades waits until he’s relatively sure that she won’t just come back before he eases the door open and creeps in on soft feet. People underestimate him, but Hades can move as quietly as death itself. Well…of course. He walks to the crib to look at the baby. She’s wrapped in a blanket but when Hades moves it a little, he can see a mop of violet hair… Though if he squints, he can see thin strands of blue, though the colour gets easily lost in the mass of violet. Mal seems to be dozing softly, her pink mouth partly open.

Up close, Hades feels his heart melt. He’s never planned for children and he was determined to leave the child with Maleficent. But now? How can he? After what he heard Maleficent say, after all he knows about her… After he has seen his daughter. Because she’s his. She stirs a little, opening her eyes, revealing their light green colour. There is a hiccup and she starts to fuss, luckily still quite quietly. He doesn’t think anymore. He grabs one of the blankets and carefully wraps her up and gathers her in his arms. 

“Shh, little one,” he murmurs softly before using one of the shawls he’s covered himself in before to strap her to his chest securely. She calms down very quickly then and he can simply sneak out of Maleficent’s house and safely get her back to his caves. It’s there where he stops and just realises what happened.

He’s kidnapped a child.

“Well, I did not kidnap her, she’s mine too and Maleficent is a bitch,” he mutters to himself as he roots through some of the stuff he’s amassed in the time he’s been here. He had no need for most of those, but he does it to fuck with the villains – because so many of them are convinced that the more they have the more they are in power. Hades calls bullshit. But right now, his fun activity actually comes in handy. 

He takes out a large-ish wooden crate that he took just to be able to carry away some other things he took. And there are enough blankets – so he likes blankets, okay? – that he can make sure all the wood is covered and the baby will be safe and comfy in there. He takes a few pieces of rope, loops them through the handles and throws them over a beam so that the makeshift crib hangs in the same height as his waist. He can’t just…let her sleep on the floor, she’s not a dog.

He gently puts her in the crib and tucks her in. She just makes a little…snuffle and stays asleep. Good. And really, now the actual realisation of what he’s just done comes trickling in. He – not kidnapped, but – took Maleficent’s baby. And if he knows something about the villains like Maleficent, she’s gonna be pissed. And she’s going to search for her…property. But really, he couldn’t leave her there after listening to Maleficent gloating about how she’s gonna turn his…HIS daughter into a weapon of her revenge. He could not, would not stand for that. 

So, he needs to plan. He can do plans. He’s great at plans. His plan to take down Zeus didn’t work because of that stupid wonder-boy. Without him, it would work. Yes, it’s good it didn’t work, but the point is, Hades makes great plans. And he has to make a great plan that won’t result in him having to hide M-…his daughter all her life. He ponders it for a moment.

Alright. So he’s gonna lie. Yes, she needs to stay hidden for at least some time until she grows up. And she’s his daughter with…some nobody. And he’ll say she’s younger. A year…or two. Depending on how fast she’ll grow. But he’s not gonna do the same bloody mistake that Gothel did. And since she was born at the end of December… Her birthday will be in September. He’ll settle on the exact date later. Of course, the hair will be problem. He’s quite sure that not many children on the Isle will have purple hair. But there are dyes for that.

Now, he needs to pick a name. He knows people spend a long time on that, usually. Zeus spent Hera’s whole pregnancy thinking of a name for the baby wonder-boy. Not that Hercules is a great name, mind you. But Maleficent was apparently very lazy about it, just taking her own name. Of course, he knows it seems to be a trend among the villains to use a derivative name or at least a name inspired by their own. He knows Anastasia Tremaine named her son Anthony, Jafar calls his name Jay…or is is J? He missed his chance, could have named the kid Jaclose.

He goes through names he’d like to call her. She can’t stay Mal, for safety and because she deserves a name of her own. He’s partial to Adrasteia, Alala, Elektra, Ianthe or even Roxane or Zoe, just to name a few. Strong names, beautiful names, with meaning he can admit to them. Nothing stupid, nothing derivative, nothing… He groans. Of course, giving her a name, a proper Greek name that is just her own…would bring a lot of attention to her and Hades. And since he wants to not make her not the most...visible child on the Isle…

“Damn…I’m gonna have to be like them,” he groans. The noise of course wakes up the baby who – up to this point – has been asleep for almost two hours. The wailing comes then. And wail she does. Hades moves to pick her up and his nose twists. A wet diaper. Lovely. “Panic,” he growls. His minion squeaks and moves to him. 

“Y-yes, your deadliness?” he asks. 

“Bring me some clean water and some pieces of cloth, towels or something,” Hades orders, trying to shush the baby before he can change it. When Panic comes back, he’s carrying a little pot with water and a pile of different pieces of cloth. 

“Anything else?” he asks, voice a little strained. 

“Not for now, scram.” The minion obeys quickly, probably going to gossip with Pain. Hades shakes his head and throws an old blanket over a little table. Then he unbundles the baby and lays her there. She isn’t dressed and only has a white-ish fabric wrapped around her bottom. He unwraps it to find there is a thin sheet of rubbery plastic nestled between layers of fabric. Oh, that’s how he didn’t feel wet fabric. He takes it off and dips a rag made out of a towel in the water, which is – surprisingly – warm. Huh, Panic can sometimes use some reasoning. Interesting. He gently washes the baby and fashions out a similar diaper out of some clean fabric. He’ll need to solve so much – getting baby clothes is just a tiny part of it.

“See? Nice and cosy,” he murmurs as he wraps her up in the softest blanket he has. He has a feeling that this little child will become a central part of his world. And if she inherited from him and Maleficent…she’ll be a right little hellion. She hiccups and cries some more. Oh, of course. She must be hungry. He sighs and reaches into himself where he keeps the magic he has left and all the magic he managed to gather. He conjures up a bottle with milk for babies and pushes the nipple softly against the baby’s lips. She opens up her mouth and starts sucking hungrily. “There you go, my little hellion. There you go…Hayley.” It slips out almost accidentally. But somehow, it’s alright. Somehow it fits. 

His daughter. Hayley.

His heir. Hayley. 

His world changing. Hayley.

Hayley.

Hayley Nightshade.

***

He’s had Hayley in his caves for a few days now. He is beginning to realise that he’ll be in a huge trouble soon. He can’t get a wet nurse, for obvious reasons. And Auradon doesn’t deign to send baby formula and there is simply nothing that the baby can safely drink and get all her nutrition from. He’s been conjuring the milk, but his magic is running out and he doesn’t know what to do. He would even try cow milk as a last-ditch attempt, but the little milk that gets to the Isle is spoiled, sour with curdled pieces that he wouldn’t feet to Pain and Panic, let alone his daughter!

And in the middle of his – not – panic – because he never panics – Persephone arrives. Her hair, which has always been a waterfall of deep reddish-brown waves, is tied into a beautiful braid that goes down almost under her ass. And what a lovely ass it is…oh, better not get side-tracked. She has a flower crown of forsythia and magenta zinnias and it’s beautiful, just as the red chrysanthemums and daisies scattered in her braid.

“My petal,” Hades whispers and he is not ashamed to admit that his voice breaks just a little bit at seeing her, his wife. At least her dress is something he knows, a beautiful red and green summery sundress.

“My night,” she responds, coming to him and embracing him, enveloping him in her arms and the scent of flowers and fruit and he feels…whole.

They just stand there, holding each other firmly, almost crushing each other. And it almost hurts, but it’s the best kind of pain and yes, it’s not been so long, nothing in the lives of god. But after decades of their lives being separated… Well, Hades doesn’t like it. He pulls back a little and notices some tiredness to Persephone.

“They are not giving you a hard time?” he asks. Persephone gives him a smile, her full lips curving softly.

“I can take it.”

“Just because you can take it doesn’t mean you should,” he frowns a little. Of course, his Persephone, his Köre can take it. She can take anything. She can take the world by storm if she wants to.

Persephone gives him a cheeky smile.

“Don’t you worry about me,” she says. “How are you? I see you have decorated your space?” she says, pointing to some of the furniture and his instruments.

“Yeah, I am living here after all,” he shrugs. Of course, that’s the moment Hayley decides to wake up, probably hungry, because it’s been a few hours since he managed to drag his power into conjuring up milk in her bottle.

Persephone zeroes in on the sound with all the strength of a goddess and her face…falls. The chrysanthemums in her hair turns yellow, the forsythia petals wilt and die. He thinks he notices petunias peeking from her braid and the dog roses close to her face definitely mean pain, not pleasure as it sometimes seems to tell.

“Why?” she asks, and he hates how small her voice sounds as she turns around, looking for the signs of a baby in the home…or something different?

“It was…” Hades hesitates a little. “A mistake on my part.”

“A mistake?!” Persephone exclaims and the petunias in her hair grow larger. “How do you even feed her? Is the mother here?”

“No. Of course not. Her mother is a villain. A true villain. And I couldn’t just leave her with her!” Persephone looks at him, her nostrils flaring.

“Your magic is exhausted.”

“Well, I needed to get her milk. And there is no milk to be had on this piece of rock,” he spits out. Persephone’s’ face turns stormy.

“Petal…”

“Save it,” she snaps and disappears in a flurry of petals. Of course, she has enough inner magic to do that and of course, the barrier doesn’t really keep her here, since she is not an actual prisoner here. And now…

But Hades doesn’t really have time to think that he won’t see her again. Because she is back and with her there is a literal heap of baby bottles, instant baby milk, diapers and everything he needs to take care of a baby.

“Thank you, I…”

“I would not let a child suffer just because I am angry at you,” Persephone hisses.

“I promise you, I never intended this.”

“So you had her by accident?!”

“I didn’t know I could father a child.”

“You know very well that you are perfectly capable of fathering a child!” Persephone snarls.

“But not with Fae!” Her eyes darken.

“Fae? Tell me you didn’t…Maleficent?” she looks almost disgusted. Hades decides to buy himself some time and grabs a box of baby formula. He gets some hot water and mixes it according to the information on the box. He tests the temperature before setting the bottle down and taking Hayley out of her make-shift crib. She is wrapped in the softest fabric he has available and she peers at him with her green eyes. He coos at her a little and reaches for the bottle. She starts sucking immediately, she’s probably starving. He lets her feed before looking back at his wife.

“I…” he starts softly and sighs. “Well, I’ve gotten lonely.”

“I could understand that,” Persephone says, her lips still pursed. “But Maleficent?”

“You…you don’t know what it’s like,” he says and hurries to continue when her face turns stormy. “I mean…here. Without magic. Of course, some magic seeps in. But it’s so not enough… Most of the magicals have wasted their last vestiges of magic so early. And it feels empty.” He’s used to magic permeating the air, he’s used to being close to other gods where the air crackles with magic. The Isle…feels wrong, empty.

“I noticed it feels wrong. But what does it have to do with her?”

“She’s powerful. Not like you or me…but power still clings to her. And it was…intoxicating.” It probably hit him more than the alcohol. Persephone nods slowly.

“So you slept with her.”

“Yes.” He’s not ashamed of that. He knows Persephone herself has probably found a toy or two to occupy her time – they are both open about that, though they usually don’t share the identities of their conquests. This time it’s a little different.

“Once.”

“Yes.”

“And you didn’t know you could get her pregnant.”

“I swear I did not! If that was possible, I’d expect Zeus to have hundreds of Fae-god children…” Persephone frowns. That argument makes sense. They both know about at least two Fae that Zeus has bedded…or fucked in other places.

“That is certainly strange.”

“Maybe it’s the barrier? Or maybe it’s about power?” Because Maleficent is strong enough to carry child that is Fae and god and neither. He knows that Fae reproduction is different… But he can’t begin to get into that.

“Whatever that is, she had your baby.” And that must hurt.

“I’m sorry, flower. I could not abandon her.” Not like the other gods. “Maleficent is not the motherly type.” Persephone lets out an unladylike snort that makes Hayley pause her feeding for a few seconds. Soon she’s back at it again.

“I can imagine. So you just took her?”

“I…didn’t believe she would be mine when Maleficent told me. But I had Pain and Panic watch her. And she kept talking about it even when there was no one to hear. And the pregnancy was long… When she was born, I had to see her. And she is mine…you can feel it.” Persephone looks at Hayley again. It might just be Hades, but it seems that the blue hue in her hair has gotten a bit more prominent.

“Yes, it’s obvious. Still…”

“I would let her there. If I didn’t hear Maleficent…” He looks at Hayley…HIS daughter. “She wanted to use her. As a weapon. She hoped her godly heritage would make my daughter strong and then Maleficent could use her to take her revenge…” Persephone scowls.

“A child. As a weapon?” Not even most gods did that.

“Yes. And I couldn’t let her do that to Hayley.” Persephone breathes in sharply.

“Hayley?” Hades can’t tell what she thinks of that.

“Well, there is a trend on the Isle. People call their children in a way that their initials are the same, at the least. Or they are derivative. Which is how you got Anthony Tremaine from Anastasia Tremaine...and Jay from Jafar…” Hades shrugs. “If you want to know, Maleficent named her Mal…well, Maleficent, actually. But she would call her Mal until she ‘earned the full name’.”

“So you decided to follow the trend?”

“I had different ideas. But I want to keep all this lowkey for some time. And a name that doesn’t stick out too much will help,” he admits. Hayley is at this point done with the bottle, so Hades sets it down and quickly grabs a little towel, throwing it over his shoulder before he props Hayley up to burp her gently. She takes her time.

“You have it planned?” Persephone makes herself comfortable on his little couch. Hades notices the yellow carnations start to turn to red and the dog roses disappear.

“Yes.” And he explains it all – the different age and birthdays, the idea that the mother is a sidekick somewhere, keeping Hayley hidden for a few years… “And yes, I will tell her who her mother is, of course. But not until I’m sure she can take it and not let it out. I need her to be safe from Maleficent.”

“I understand,” Persephone says softly. Hades smiles when he notices coloured ambrosias creeping into her hair slowly and mingle with the little cattails into a flower crown.

“I didn’t plan it,” he says. Because he needs to. He needs her to know. He needs her to understand. And she offers him a soft smile.

“I know.”

When Hayley finally burps and he wipes her face, he lays her in her crib and pets her hair. He sings a melancholic lullaby. Hayley is probably tired from her hunger and the food she drank now, so she falls asleep quickly. Hades turns to Persephone apologetically. But he finds her smiling and there are azaleas and white camelias in her braid.

“It’s been some time since I heard you sing,” she says. Hades shrugs a little.

“It’s been some time since you saw me,” he shrugs.

“Even before.”

“Right.” It’s true that he had slipped into a very dark place before he actually started his plan. And in that time, he did not sing. Or dance. Or play. But he can feel music in his blood again. And it feels good.

“Yes.”

“Well, I have learned to play the ukulele,” he says. He has learned to play the guitar, bass and he’s planning to learn drums and violin and so much more… But he’s not one to brag.

“Show me.”

So he does. And when his dear Persephone leaves, the magenta zinnias are back, together with sweet peas and blue violets and she leaves with the promise that she’ll come back. They will be alright. All three of them.

  
  



End file.
